Children & families

Adult social care

Legal Advocates

This is our story

The Director here at Deaf Independent studied Social Work at Kingston University, and qualified to first class degree level in 1997. She also supports a variety of key organisations, who promote knowledge in social care and deafness, and setup Deaf Independent due to the lack of awareness within mainstream settings, in relation to specific skill bases that are needed within certain settings. The pre-trial, trial and post-trial stages have their own systems, and while BSL Interpreters are an important part of the process, they are not all that's needed in order for equality and inclusivity to be meaningful. The Director was born into a profoundly deaf family and has advocated on a range of matters pertaining to the lives of deaf people throughout her life. There is a chronic shortage of qualified Social Workers who are experienced in working with deafness, Deaf Relay/Intermediaries, fluent in BSL and specialist in their own area of expertise, leading to variability in social work sensory services.

Deaf Independent was setup to promote equality and inclusion for all parties, in order to address the potential power imbalance in all matters relating to Social Work and Social Care, including legal proceedings. We aim to support your work with deaf and hard of hearing clients, and will help you to recognise which resource is best utilised in order to achieve optimal outcome. We believe in empowering people with information and supporting deaf members of the public to find out what it is that they can expect from Social Work and Social Care in practise and through training. We are a not for profit organisation (see our article for more information under the heading 'BSL Vlog')! Please support us in our quest to support high quality social care and social work knowledge and resources within the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

Building a safe, confident future (2009) highlighted the need for broad Social Work reform:

"At present, however, social work in England too often falls short of these basic conditions for success. Weaknesses in recruitment, retention, frontline resources, training, leadership, public understanding and other factors are all compounding one another. They are holding back the profession and making service improvement difficult to achieve. Most importantly, people who look to social workers for support are not getting the consistently high quality of service they deserve."

Since 2012, Deaf Independent has provided a service to professionals, deaf, deafened, hard of hearing and deaf/blind adults and young people across the UK. This is provided by our team of qualified deaf experts in Social Care. For us, this is not just our job - it is personal! Our aim is to promote equality of access to information whether that's getting the best out of the Care Act or if you find yourself within the legal proceedings.

It is a fact that for many deaf people availability of qualified Social Workers with appropriate skills and knowledge in deafness has been varied at best and non-existent for most. For professionals, the need to locate qualified Social Workers who are specialists in their fields has increased. The skills of an independent expert Social Worker are in demand in comparison to the generic adult or children and families Social Workers employed by many local authorities.

​WHY IS THIS?

​Concepts and genres familiar within the hearing world are not necessarily transferable and familiar in the Deaf world. British Sign Language is a visual language and has a very different grammatical structure to the English language. In fact, a case law finding in 2014, we were involved in, acknowledged that “Communication between a profoundly deaf individual and professionals for the purpose of assessment and court proceedings involves a sophisticated and to a degree bespoke, understanding of both the process of such communication and the level and character of the deaf person’s comprehension of the issues which those in the hearing population simply take as commonplace……..what is required is expert and insightful analysis and support from a suitably qualified professional, and the advice this court has in the reports we have, a suitably qualified professional who is themselves deaf, at the very earliest stage”. (LJMcFarlane)Read Full judgement: EWCA (2014) Re C (A Child) Civ 128, Family Law Week

It is estimated by the National Audit office that there are approximately 250,000 deaf people who use British Sign Language as their first or preferred language. Additionally 1 in 7 people experience a hearing loss that requires assistance from others for daily tasks. The limited resources in the UK are shared by deaf people and it has been evidenced that a postcode lottery exists for many in the provision of specialist sensory or deaf services.

We, at Deaf independent, believe in equality, inclusion and access to wide ranging, clear and understandable information for deaf people. Access to information and/or material does not necessarily equate to a removal of a barrier, rather it inadvertently creates new barriers for many deaf people. Our ‘expert’ team are specialists in their own domains, such as in Mental capacity, Children and Families, Best Interest Assessor, and so on are all here to help you. Our team maintains its connection through daily frontline work with service users and commitment to continuous professional development.

Through our unique business model with personal and professional experiences, knowledge and skills, we are able to offer professionals and their deaf clients the ultimate in service and quality, throughout a complete holistic assessment process, which is commissioned as a bespoke and independent service. Unlike others, we ‘know the law’ and are able to interpret, provide advice and guidance on an impartial basis whether you source us as an Advocate, Family Support Worker or Social Worker.​CONTACT US on a no obligation basis to discuss your exact requirements.